Virtual Humans in the Uncanny Valley Activate the Immune System

1 September 2025

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Virtual Humans in the Uncanny Valley Activate the Immune System

A new study by the Diekhof research group, conducted in collaboration with the Department of Computer Science (Prof. Steinicke), shows that not only virtual individuals who appear ill, but also those with uncanny or strange characteristics, upregulate the immune response in the oral mucosa. This result represents the first empirical evidence for the so-called “Pathogen Avoidance Strategy of the Uncanny Valley.” This hypothesis suggests that human-like avatars in virtual reality — which are never entirely realistic and often exhibit odd behaviors or features — are mistakenly perceived as being sick. The finding of an increased concentration of antibodies in saliva after approximately six minutes of interaction with so-called uncanny avatars in virtual reality supports this idea.

You can find the press release here:  https://www.uni-hamburg.de/newsroom/presse/2025/pm33.html

The corresponding article is available here: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-15579-4

"Finally, there is also a podcast on the topic: A podcast generated with the help of AI, based on a preprint version of the paper, is also available on Spotify  and provides an audio-only access to this research.